This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

An aboriginal movement fuelled by social media is growing and could be the PM&rsquo;s sleeper issue in 2013.

Chiefs and members of the First Nations talk to the media after they tried to push their way into the House of Commons on Dec. 4. Since then, a hunger strike and a growing Idle No More protest movement has pushed aboriginal issues into the public eye. (FRED CHARTRAND / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

In the next couple of days we will learn whether this is the latest venting of aboriginal frustration in this country or whether it grows to become a sleeper issue in 2013.

Aboriginal discontent could muscle its way onto Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s agenda very early in the new year.

The protests have been surprisingly robust, although Idle No More, born of opposition to the government’s omnibus budget bill, is only days old.

It has moved beyond the angry flare sparked by the bill and has grown, fuelled by young aboriginals deftly using social media, to represent the latest iteration of the festering conflict that has marked the Harper government — its determination to economically exploit resources over the objections of environmentalists and aboriginals who believe this regime is running roughshod over its ancestral lands.

But there is more, something even more fundamental, because movement leaders count 14 pieces of legislation — dealing with everything from education to water quality to financial accountability — that they believe are the laws of an adversary.

“The government of Canada has not upheld nor fulfilled its responsibilities to First Nations, as committed to by the Crown including at the Crown-First Nations gathering of January, 2012,” said Shawn Atleo, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, in an open letter to Harper and Gov.-Gen. David Johnston.

Atleo, until now, has been the calm face of an increasingly angry aboriginal population. But last month he told Harper and Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan that any goodwill and spirit of co-operation from last January’s summit has been squandered.

Idle No More spokeswoman Pam Palmater says there must be a “fundamental shift” in the relationship between Canada and First Nations.

“The treaty relationship was about mutual prosperity and sharing of the wealth,” she says. “Only one treaty partner has been wealthy and prospered.’’

Highways have been blockaded, flash mobs have shown up at shopping malls, rallies have been held in western Canadian cities. They have the support of trade unions and they have called for a mass rally in Ottawa Friday.

The Spence hunger strike has galvanized the movement, but Duncan insists that he has reached out to the chief and was planning to call her again Tuesday.

Duncan’s spokesman, Jason MacDonald, said the minister’s office asked the band office on Dec. 13 for a number to reach Spence and were refused. Duncan called on her cellphone and got no answer; he called her home number and sent her a letter.

But Spence says she will not eat until a meeting is convened including Harper, Johnston (as the representative of the Queen) and aboriginal leaders.

“Sitting down with John Duncan is just another example of what we’ve always been doing,” said Palmater.

In this year’s budget, the government committed an additional $275 million in funding for First Nation education. It spends about $1.7 billion per year on First Nations students.

Consultations with native representatives over education have broken down. The initiative is now largely a unilateral Ottawa move.

First Nations believe a bill forcing chiefs and bands to publicly release salaries and financial reports is a move meant to pit leaders against residents.

The omnibus bill amends the Navigable Waters Protection Act, a law dating to the days of Sir John A. Macdonald, meant to ensure development would not impede Canadians’ rights to freely pass through public waterways.

The government now has the right to approve projects on more than 160 lakes without consulting First Nations.

The Conservatives also amended the Indian Act, making it easier for aboriginal leaders to lease out land for economic development without consulting band residents and have proposed a bill that would give Ottawa more control over band elections.

There is ongoing frustration over the lack of an inquiry into the more than 600 aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing in this country over the past two decades and why 50 per cent of violent crimes against aboriginals go unprosecuted, twice the rate of the general population.

Even the program used to compile the data, Sister in Spirit, lost its funding under the Conservatives.

This issue may take a Christmas break. But it looks like it will be back.

Tim Harper is a national affairs writer. His column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. tharper@thestar.ca

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com